


a fic called you

by hoelistic



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Attempt at Humor, Canon Compliant, Characters Reading Fanfiction, Characters Writing Fanfiction, Fluff, Friends to Lovers, Implied Sexual Content, M/M, Oblivious Lee Donghyuck | Haechan/Mark Lee, day 1: firsts and lasts, fanfic writer! Mark Lee, wow i made new tags
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-27
Updated: 2020-12-27
Packaged: 2021-03-11 00:06:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,128
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28105971
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hoelistic/pseuds/hoelistic
Summary: AO3 isn’t what Donghyuck expects.Donghyuck’s got a long list of expectations when he first logs into the website.And AO3 fails to meet a single item on that list.(In which Mark tells Donghyuck he's an AO3 fanfic writer and Donghyuck decides to fully dive into fanfiction culture so he can leave the best comments on Mark's works.)
Relationships: Lee Donghyuck | Haechan/Mark Lee
Comments: 52
Kudos: 343
Collections: Markhyuck Week 2021





	a fic called you

**Author's Note:**

> All of the fics Donghyuck reads are my other works on this account ^^. I never thought I'd write canon-compliant but this fic idea has been living in my head rent free since my writing hiatus so I guess it's part of my extremely self indulgent AO3 era lmao.

It’s nearing the end of December when Donghyuck finally plucks the courage to use the ugly chicken scratch that’s his AO3 username and password tacked on an old pink Moomin themed sticky note plastered on the screen of his MacBook. 

He doesn’t tell anyone about his days-old AO3 account — except for Mark who was the person who gave him the invitation link in the first place.

“It’s user _hon3ybear_ and the password is 060600.” Donghyuck faintly remembers Mark explaining. 

Mark’s cheeks are just lightly dusted pink from Donghyuck telling Mark he’d like to check out the former’s fanfics. He had probably half-expected for Donghyuck to laugh for indulging in such a weird hobby but instead, he’s met with Donghyuck thanking him for sharing his secret hobby; that not everyone is brave enough to share something that important and precious—even between friends of so many years now.

Maybe that’s where it all starts, a wide-eyed Mark caught off guard by Donghyuck being willing to read his fanfics. The soft tender expression that appears on Mark’s face reminds Donghyuck of the time they first met as trainees. 

Donghyuck had come storming into SM Entertainment as a kid just on the verge of puberty, high-pitched greetings and bright brown eyes laying on a boy just one year older than him.

Mark’s cheeks still retained their baby fat, a softness long replaced by high cheekbones after they debuted in NCT together, and his grin revealed a row of slightly crooked teeth being remedied by bright green braces.

A bright and kind smile that has never changed even after all of these years together— even after their scrappy knees bruised purple and blue. And even after days where they’d return to the dorms crying. Crying because they felt that their debut stage was growing farther and farther away, unlike the growing anxieties of the training system and letting go of normalcy. 

Things like graduating from middle school and high school with friends gone in favor of performing in front of people that may hate them the day after because of some unfounded rumor on PANN. 

Yet a scorched smile always finds its way back.

That’s the beautiful memory engraved in Donghyuck’s mind as he inputs his username and password.

AO3 isn’t what Donghyuck expects. 

Donghyuck’s got a long list of expectations when he first logs into the website.

And AO3 fails to meet a single item on that list.

To put things into perspective, Donghyuck’s list starts with the belief that most of the fanfics being archived on the fanfiction site are hardcore smut — and the beliefs go all the way to including fan insert fanfics filled with fantasy harems where the main character – with a very basic Tumblr aesthetic-inspired name – is dating every single one of her favorite boy group members. Or in some cases, being the sole reason for her biases finally getting together after so years of being oblivious about their romantic feelings towards each other.

Not that Donghyuck is judging their hobby or anything remotely similar to a feeling laced with an indefinite amount of annoying superiority complexes— there isn’t any good enough reason to make fun of someone’s hobby as long as it doesn’t hurt anybody. 

In actuality, Donghyuck thinks it’s kind of cool that fanfiction has provided an outlet for people to post their original works and express themselves.

But that’s the misconception Donghyuck had logging onto AO3.

And he’s certain that many more hold this negative stereotype as a universal truth before they even give one of the millions of fanfics on the site a fair chance. 

Logging in onto AO3 has certainly given Donghyuck a new perspective on fandom behavior. Donghyuck has to admit it’s rather flattering when fans make au threads comparing him to the Greek god Apollo and sometimes he even bookmarks fanart of himself on their official Twitter account when he’s scrolling on the app— of course without any of his managers noticing.

Donghyuck’s never been on AO3 before Mark telling him he’s a fanfic author, but he’s always been someone curious and willing to try new things, as evidenced in him auditioning for SM when his mom told him to try to see what would happen. He passed and the rest is now history— with NCT becoming one of the most popular boy groups of this generation.

And Donghyuck certainly didn’t think that he would be here in the middle of the night about to read his fellow groupmate’s fanfic instead of playing Kartrider with Jungwoo.

(He was going to beat Jungwoo one day; this he swears on the daesung award they kept in the living room and on the rare occasion used to kill a random fly or two; not that Taeyong will ever find out.)

(( _Hopefully_. He doesn’t want to be vanished to the 10th floor by his leader. Taeyong has already threatened this two times too many now.))

But here’s Donghyuck, logging into a three days old account ready to scroll through some fanfics before he can read one of Mark’s and leave a proper comment on his body of work. 

Is that what you would call it? Or does a reader just call them books? No, books sound Wattpad-Esque and god forbid Mark ever writes for that hell-site. Just to clarify, Donghyuck has not ever laid his eyes on Wattpad. He’s only heard about it in passing. _Got it_? Continuing to…fanfics. Does he call them fics? He might have to ask Mark about this later.

Donghyuck’s unsure whether AO3 writers and readers have any kind of fanfiction etiquette other than the obvious leave comments and kudos if you like a person’s work. Oh, and the other very obvious: don’t repost an author’s work to another site without their permission. But that seems a given he thinks. Just simple human decency. Really. Nothing more.

Donghyuck would be pissed as hell if someone dared to try to pass any one of Mark’s rap verses as their own, especially after seeing him stay up at night trying to figure out how to make it flow along to the beat of songs SM had picked for their comebacks. And if anyone were to plagiarize any one of Mark’s fanfics, Donghyuck is already ready to click the report button and file a complaint to have AO3 terminate that user’s account for good. 

Certainly without any of their managers finding out of course.

NCT could do without a Dispatch scandal headlining:

**NCT’s Haechan Caught Reporting Plagiarism of Fellow Member’s Fanfiction**

_Stay Tuned for More Details_.

Lee Sooman himself would come back from his uber-capitalist hell and personally end Donghyuck’s contract before that even had the chance of happening.

(Donghyuck guessed that this would be a first for kpop though.)

But now that he’s finally logged into his AO3 account and the door is locked and secure from the possibility of anyone barging in to bug him, Donghyuck goes through the search for registered users bar and finds Mark’s username:

Mark3r. 

How cute, Donghyuck thinks. Mark’s username is the same as the nickname Donghyuck gave him when they were still in SM Rookies and years away from debuting in NCT U and NCT 127 respectfully.

He smiles and doesn’t think much about the username. 

Jaemin says it’s because Mark likes Donghyuck _that way_ Mark doesn’t mind the silly nickname that rolls off Donghyuck’s tongue and uses it for all of his private accounts, but Donghyuck’s always laughed Jaemin’s claim off. 

It’s not because Mark likes him _that_ way. 

Donghyuck’s 100% certain that Mark would have already confessed if he did romantically like him. 

Mark’s never been someone good at harboring his feelings; everything Mark has ever written – from the notes he used to leave on their lockers to his rap verses -has come from the bottom of his heart. 

Long before Mark even appeared on High School Rapper, his heart was on the line, ready to be caught by whoever was listening to the volatile yet quiet waves of its constant beating.

Mark’s heart is like a book of songs, when you turned a page you’d see him reveal just a little bit more about himself. All of the songs one could write about Mark are already there— revealing more truths about him that one would assume they’d find out about at a first glance.

It’s not weird at all Donghyuck knows this much about Mark. 

It’s not like they’ve attached to the hip since signing with SM and debuting and staying friends even longer. 

A friendship so strong Donghyuck is permitted to read one of Mark’s fanfics— a hobby he’s only told Donghyuck about. Not even Johnny knows about Mark’s secret AO3 user account and all of the fanfics he’s written within the past year.

Donghyuck moves his MacBook’s cursor and clicks on the dashboard where all of Mark’s works are.

Looks like Mark has only three posted fanfics, Donghyuck observes grabbing a sweet potato chip and stuffing his mouth only to choke on it five seconds later and hastily gulping down a bottle of Sprite.

Today is not the day he’s going to die and have the paramedics come in and think he died from reading fanfiction. 

At the very least Donghyuck’s only on the main page and not reading something, he’d only ever dare read on incognito mode. 

Not that it would be the worst death, but definitely on the top 10 worst ways to die right after being mauled by a bear. 

Mark’s shortest fanfic catches his eye, and a pop-up asks if Donghyuck is over 18 years old. He’s a little surprised that Mark could have written anything with a mature rating considering Mark didn’t like roller coasters and definitely couldn’t stomach watching _Annabelle_ with him in the dorms. 

But then again, considering Mark has written rather “explicit” lyrics about some mysterious crush he had a while back, Donghyuck thinks perhaps his best-friend was projecting about his feelings in fanfiction form. 

_Valid_. 

Curiosity flares up and that’s the first fanfic Donghyuck decides to bookmark for later. Donghyuck even covers the fandom tags with his hand, already categorizing himself as unworthy of already peering over Mark’s work.

Maybe he’ll share these feelings with Mark later so they can talk about it since Donghyuck wants to make sure that he’s treating his best friend’s fanfic with utmost care. Donghyuck knows that Mark started writing fanfics as a way to emulate being an author — a dream Mark had let go of so early in his childhood to become an idol.

It’s something too precious and dear to make fun of and reduce to a series of high-pitched giggles at the cost of Mark’s feelings.

Mark has given Donghyuck a secret akin to a small flame. A small flame Donghyuck is given full responsibility to care for and to protect from being blown out by the cruel wind that wants to take everything with it— even if it’s only the heat of a fire that has no other desire but to flicker for only a couple of seconds longer.

People keeping projecting characters onto Mark; all of them full of presumptuous thoughts, Donghyuck finds. Mark has this habit of being perceived as cold and tough when he’s everything but that.

Mark is someone who comes to Donghyuck like a lost plant in space looking for the sun, all alone and seeking warmth. 

When Mark is unable to make scrambled eggs, he immediately seeks out Donghyuck and tugs on his old hoodie with Donghyuck following in suit like a little duck to the kitchen. During interviews, Mark's hand always finds its way on Donghyuck’s thigh; Donghyuck never minds because it makes Mark feel safe, tethered to the sun as if he were a little planet in the outskirts of the universe without any stars guiding it home.

There are brief moments where Taeil where jokes that Mark is like a sunflower chasing after sunlight, stem growing and growing so it can finally reach for the sun’s gentle warmth.

But Donghyuck doesn’t find it within himself to like this comparison either.

It’s never a fair comparison.

Even if there are times where he and Mark fight and bicker over stupid things like iPhones being better than Samsung Galaxy phones, he’d never want to give less than what he does now to Mark.

Taeil maybe who fans consider to be the moon to Donghyuck’s sun – as the two get along so well - but what people don’t realize is that the moon doesn’t orbit for the sun’s sake. 

The moon is always in a chase after the earth, and that earth is Johnny. 

Donghyuck always sees Taeil sneaking a glimpse of Johnny when they’re together, for Johnny is the person that tethers Taeil back home when he’s feeling down. The small space that’s allocated to Donghyuck in Taeil’s heart is so insignificant it’s like being a white dwarf next to a red giant. 

He’d never be more than a dissipating white star in the large and ever-growing galaxy that is NCT. Always flickering. Always in orbit. But hardly ever noticed because everyone around him is already so splendid and beautiful. A splendor that can’t be ignored by fans in favor of a star that’s still learning how to shine.

And the star that shines the brightest in Donghyuck’s eyes is Mark Lee — the person that’s always remained a constant in Donghyuck’s life.

Mark shines the brightest among all 23 of them and perhaps he radiates the warmest smile as well, melting away all the coldness that comes with living in Seoul. The bitter rain disappeared when Mark debuts in every single unit— and even in SUPERM only years later.

Because of this warmth, Donghyuck likes clinging to Mark. 

Because he no longer has to carry the burden of being the full sun in anyone’s eyes. With Mark, he allows himself to be a small moth attracted to a burning flame. A flame small enough that he can hold in the palm of his hands, but strong enough to withstand heavy winds and gloomy clouds that threaten to extinguish it.

This is why Donghyuck is doing his best to become the best fic reader possible before he dares to read Mark’s fic.

The first ship Donghyuck on AO3 stumbles upon is Kagehina.

Kagehina quickly becomes his otp because of a fic named “i want to be a cat” by AO3 user onedrop. 

Short one-shot. 5k words. 5+1 things. A story about the five times Hinata kisses Kageyama, he turns into a cat until he finally confesses his feelings towards his teammate. 

Saying that onedrop’s fic is very good is a huge understatement.

(Donghyuck’s a big romantic. Okay. He loves watching _The Proposal_ during his free time and sometimes. Sometimes. Not _always_. Let’s get that part clarified first of all before he admits his big secret other than— wait. Donghyuck keeps that realization to himself for now.)

((He shrugs. Meh, he thinks. There’s not much to lose here.)

(((Donghyuck secretly indulges in watching every _To All the Boys I Loved_ movie no matter how badly they’re written. It’s okay, he tells himself. One day he’ll find a better movie to cry about.)))

Donghyuck doesn’t think leaving a comment is enough to encapsulate how much he loves this Kagehina one-shot.

Fuck. “i want to be a cat” by AO3 user onedrop devastates Donghyuck to smithereens and the fic lives in his mind rent-free for the next three days. Donghyuck even drops a small anon in the author’s Curious Cat to show how much he loved the fic; a couple of days later, a small scribble of cat boy Hinata also finds its way in— the best fan art Donghyuck can muster considering his busy schedule. 

Couldn’t have the _90’s Love_ MV filming been pushed back just for five minutes Donghyuck could reread “i want to be a cat once” more? 

“Why are you smiling all the time?” Johnny asks, peering over from his bowl of Lucky Charms. An expensive taste Johnny had acquired, and one SM readily indulged in with the hopes one day a fan would notice during one of their VLIVEs and get a sponsorship from the foreign cereal company. “Have you finally—”

Donghyuck can barely keep himself from jumping out of his chair and shoves his iPhone right into Johnny’s hands. Sadly Johnny’s spoon and its cereal bowl soulmate are separated with no hopes of ever being reunited again—unless Taeyong decided to clean the kitchen for all of their sakes. 

“Have you read this fic yet? It’s fucking adorable as hell and I can feel my heart melting like butter whenever I think about it.”

Turns out Johnny likes Kagehina too and they end giving each other fic recommendations.

AO3 is addictive and Donghyuck finds himself following onedrop’s Twitter account on his brand-new private reading account. 

@dongmark66. 

Clapped.

Donghyuck knows that. But Donghyuck likes the way Mark’s name looks next to his. And combining it with his _90’s Love_ jersey number just adds a cherry on top. It’s cute and no one can tell Donghyuck otherwise. Not even Jisung can deny how cute the username is and even he helped Donghyuck pick out the layout.

It’s the sad little duck meme and a header with the quote in yellow letters: 

please do not perceive me for this.

Donghyuck can’t wait for Wednesday to come. 

Wednesday means he’s getting a spoiler from one of onedrop’s many works in progress. Man, why didn’t he start reading fics on AO3 sooner? Mark knew what he was doing by becoming a fic author. That’s so cool of him. And kind of—never mind. 

(It would be funny to say Mark’s kind of hot for being a fanfic author.)

((Right?))

(((Donghyuck misses the way his heart starts beating rapidly and the way the apple of his cheeks become slightly dusted in pink at the possibility his best friend may have written fanfics he’d treasure and bookmark as one of his comfort fics.)))

Renjun is the first one to say it.

“Hyuck, I think we need to hold an intervention,” Renjun says slamming open the door to Donghyuck’s room. He had come over to visit Doyoung and watch a movie together; Jennifer’s Body to be exact. 

(Honestly, this whole entrance is too dramatic for Donghyuck. He expected something a bit more creative if this is how Renjun is going to treat his fanfiction flop era.)

“Why?” Donghyuck replies, slightly lifting his head so that he can properly address Renjun. 

He’s laying down on his belly phone in hand reading another fanfic. Another Kagehina fic, he’ll add, but Donghyuck doesn’t think that Renjun cares much for it. If anything Renjun is glaring at Donghyuck’s phone screen with eyes commanding him to stop reading this very instant or else.

He grimaces. 

Donghyuck had been waiting this whole week for this specific update to drop. AO3 user summerrains just back from a five-month hiatus and updated her long fic. Hinata and Kagehina are finally getting their shit together and confessing their feelings after pining for a total of 130k words. 

But Donghyuck has to let her go for now. 

Just for now. 

Because once Renjun was done with this whole intervention thing, Donghyuck can go back to indulging in his favorite long fic and re-read a couple of other comfort fics he had bookmarked earlier that week. There were also a couple of comments in his inbox Donghyuck wanted to reply to so he could properly express how much he appreciated his favorite authors. For free! F-R-E-E.

In this economy, Donghyuck was ready to adore each little word that made his heart explode with happiness.

“Okay.”

“Okay?” Donghyuck repeats.

“You need to stop reading Kagehina and branch out to other ships and fandoms,” Renjun says.

“I will not—what?”

“You heard me. You need to branch out.”

“But Kagehina care me?” Donghyuck grits underneath his breath. “Kagehina is my comfort ship. I need Kagehina to get through the week. And there’s no way I’ll ever run out of fics knowing that it’s the most Haikyuu popular pairing. You’ll never catch me in rare pair hell like Johnny.”

He clutches his iPhone, making sure all of his bookmarks are safe and hidden away from Renjun’s evil grasp. Renjun wouldn’t dare lay a hand on his precious Kagehina fanfics. 

Right? Either way, Renjun should prepare to face Donghyuck’s wrath if he knows what’s good for him.

“You don’t need to let go of Kagehina,” Renjun huffs out. He’s tired and rolls his eyes, already regretting this conversation. “I’m just saying you should check out rpfs.”

“Rpfs?” Donghyuck blinks.

Renjun nods. “Rpfs. Real person fanfiction.”

“So like—fanfics of myself?”

Donghyuck’s never considered this possibility before— even with all the fanart of him and his members roaming around on the internet. It’s not a bad thing, Donghyuck thinks. Just another form of fandom culture and one that lends itself to people showing their adoration for their idols and improving their writing skills.

But where does he start? Renjun says that a lot of the fanfics about them are rather well written — some even spanning so many chapters it could easily rival what’s being professionally published.

Donghyuck decides Twitter his best option and goes through every NCT fic-related account. 

He’s shocked to see that there’s fic fests dedicated to shipping members with each other and other fic fests dedicated to certain tropes or themes. He’s never considered himself to be a jock—but a sports-themed fest opens his eyes and Donghyuck considers playing basketball with Mark later.

(Not bowling though. Donghyuck just plain sucks at bowling— well pretty much anything other than esports. He’s a gamer boy, not a jock.)

Not like Mark will reject his offer to play. Mark never rejects him. 

Sure there’s been playful banter on-screen with Mark pushing Donghyuck away— but it’s the cat and mouse relationship that edges fans on from what Donghyuck’s observed. None of it says much about how Mark is with him outside of their schedules. 

For the most part, they just hang out in the dorms singing together and cuddling with each other on the couch after dance practice, too tired to do anything else. Especially Mark. He juggled through way too many schedules and unit activities for Donghyuck not to spoil him with a quick dinner— fried rice is the very least Mark deserves.

It seems like fans agreed, making compilations of him and Mark together, even catching the small moments where they’d make eye contact, smiling about how excited they still are they have the opportunities to debut together over and over.

Most of the posts Donghyuck finds on Twitter use the hashtags #markhyuck #맠동. 

And he doesn’t come back from that hell hole.

Before Donghyuck realizes it, he’s already spent hours looking at Markhyuck and Dongmark fanart — and a couple of webtoons about them going on “dates”. Dates based on them going out on their days off and eating together. All of which Mark paid for without Donghyuck having to pretend he left his credit card behind in the dorms whenever he’s with anyone else.

Being pampered feels nice.

And sometimes. Just sometimes, Mark calls Donghyuck pretty and Donghyuck likes that. A lot.

More than what fans may know.

There’s one fic called “la vie en rose” that catches his attention. Another pop-up comes out asking if Donghyuck is okay to read mature content and he clicks yes. Donghyuck considered disabling this function, but he’s never sure about the accuracy of fic tags and likes to skim through the author’s notes for more warnings for content that might be triggering.

The page opens to the summary:

> He falls in love with Donghyuck one autumn morning, underneath the vibrant orange maple trees of their undergraduate university, realizing his heart always manages to flutter when Donghyuck wanted to pluck little daisies from the grass, wishing that the ever-creeping layer of frost melt and give way for Donghyuck’s happiness.

It reads just like the Twitter AUs he’s seen around— not much of a difference, Donghyuck thinks to himself. The only difference he sees is how much work has to be put into creating screenshots that can convey a realistic story to readers through DMS and Tweets; Donghyuck is just left amazed by how much work fanfic authors put into their work. And all of this is for free. Fuck AO3 is going to take over Barnes & Noble one day. This Donghyuck swears on his two daesung trophies.

_Did it hurt?” Donghyuck asks, voice wavering for the very first time since the moment they met, smile disappearing. His smile drifts like the fallen leaves that come with autumn finally forced to let go of the branch they clutched on during spring and summer._

_Mark immediately shakes his head no and presses a gentle kiss on Donghyuck’s cupid shaped lips, once again finding himself addicted to Donghyuck’s honeyed taste._

_“It wasn’t perfect,” he quietly admits. “But I wouldn’t mind coming back with you even if all you wanted to do was make flower crowns all evening long.”_

_Donghyuck smile returns and spring crawls back after hibernating for so long._

_It feels good to call Donghyuck his boyfriend now, Mark thinks as he sleeps on Donghyuck’s chest._

_There is no grand declaration of love that blooms underneath the purple painted sky that illuminates over the ochre yellow sunflower plants. But the little kiss that Donghyuck presses on Mark’s forehead after placing the small white flower behind his ear tells him all he needs to know—_

Donghyuck ends up blushing a brilliant red.

Now because of Renjun, Donghyuck’s been on a Markhyuck binge on AO3 and he’s not surprised that they’re the most popular NCT ship on the site. 

It’s a little flattering considering how close he and Mark are. Look at them. They’re adorable together. That’s a fact of life Donghyuck will never deny.

A lot of them are extremely cute fics where Donghyuck and Mark would get together after years of pining. Some of them were a bit too “steamy” for Donghyuck’s taste, but he just skipped over those scenes and focused more on their characterization. He loved the way so many of them came to characterize Mark. His Mark.

Gone were the stereotypical misconceptions that his best friend didn’t like physical affection. Instead, so many of these Marks resembled the boy he met all those years ago and understood that affection doesn’t always need to be a grand display of affection.

The boy with a voice that still hadn’t cracked yet with braces Donghyuck found cool because of their bright green color. Braces that Donghyuck told him reminded him of a dinosaur. A little mistake on Donghyuck’s part he had to admit. He didn’t mean to make Mark sad. 

In actuality, Donghyuck found dinosaurs very cool and Mark as well. 

The boy who came from all across the world to South Korea to make his dreams come true.

The same boy became Donghyuck’s best friend and is still his best friend now even after all of these years. New members might be added to NCT and Donghyuck will always welcome them with open arms.

But Mark is the person he always comes back to when he’s tired from their long schedules. Even when Mark makes other friends from other groups, the one he reserves the spot for a best friend has always been for Donghyuck.

Donghyuck remembers the time Mark decided to go on High School rapper, the first person Mark ever shared his verses with was him and not Taeyong as he expected. Mark, despite placing well and surpassing his mentors' expectations, was always anxious about doing well. 

Anxiety exasperated by the fact that his fellow rappers didn’t respect him enough and Donghyuck had to be held back to avoid a scandal. The only thing that calmed Donghyuck down was Taeyong telling him he needed to behave or else his actions would reflect badly on Mark's image and possibly get him removed from the program.

Donghyuck, still very much petty, left a couple of negative comments on their videos on NAVER, but he quickly deleted them once he saw Mark’s dazzling smile when he shows him his verses.

“Wonwoo helped me write these,” Mark shared with Donghyuck when he came back to the dorms. “What do you think?”

“They’re great.” He smiled.

He never needs to lie to Mark. In Donghyuck’s eyes, Mark always does well.

And perhaps that’s why Donghyuck doesn’t read canon-compliant fics anymore. They remind him too much of Mark. His Mark— but at the same time, they don’t.

Canon-compliant fics don’t always capture how easy it is to love Mark. How easy it is to become happy seeing Mark smile.

So Donghyuck chooses to only read fics where Mark is given endless adoration.

Because Mark should only ever experience happiness.

_Destiny teaches Donghyuck a couple of things:_

  1. _Mark didn’t mean to spoil Harry Potter for him._
  2. _Mark is sadly a Belieber._
  3. _If Mark wants to cuddle with you when he’s drunk let him. He only likes to be affectionate in private and sometimes when he’s jealous, Mark will kiss you in public — and only on very rare occasions like when his friend Jaehyun asked Donghyuck out on a date in front of him._
  4. _Mark is fucking adorable and even more adorable when he “accidentally” dyed his hair blond so that he could match Donghyuck (Donghyuck messed up his box dye job and cried all evening because he didn’t read the label and didn’t get the purple hair he wanted.)_
  5. _She who should not be named wishes she could write a love story as good as his and Mark’s. They’re fucking adorable and no one not even destiny could deny them otherwise._
  6. _Destiny knew what she was doing._



Now Donghyuck is reminded of the time he and Mark first got drunk together.

Mark is a lightweight. And a very cuddly drunk too, which is why Mark rarely drinks. But he promised Donghyuck they’d drink together when Donghyuck finally became of age and they did in the living room of their old dorm room. when the rest of 127 went out to eat.

According to Taeil, the ending result was Mark clinging to Donghyuck like a koala. Taeil said that he tried to pry Mark off, but his grasp was too tight — even with Jaehyun and Doyoung helping him out. In the very end, Mark and Donghyuck were left sleeping together on their old couch until the very next day.

For a moment, Donghyuck’s left wondering whether Mark clings onto anyone else when he’s drunk. He’s reminded of the time of a very drunk Mark drawing circles around Johnny’s sunflower tattoo during one of their VLIVES. Perhaps drunk Mark is just clingy with everyone? But then he also remembers that Johnny was teasing Mark afterward because the sunflower tattoo reminded him of a certain someone.

_Their first kiss is everything that Donghyuck dreams that it would be. It’s so sweet and soft that he finds himself wanting more and more until he leaves Mark’s lips swollen and red like all the poinsettias that adorn the dining hall._

_They finally part after what seems an eternity in the Room of Requirement, fore-heads pressed together as both of them feel bashful smiles beginning to be drawn on their faces, eyes twinkling in excitement for what is to come._

_Maybe Donghyuck should buy more mistletoe after all?_

How would it feel like to kiss—

Donghyuck slaps his cheeks back into reality.

Great.

He might have a crush on his bandmate.

No. 

Not great.

Fuck.

Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.

Who the fuck is AO3 user sunflower_power making Donghyuck realize his feelings for Mark?

This isn’t fair.

He should be the one having this revelation on his terms. Like Donghyuck should have had it after he was helping Mark skate during the filming of _90’s Love_. Or maybe wake up one day with the realization he likes Mark and talk to him about it.

Donghyuck shouldn’t be realizing his feelings for Mark in his room in the middle of the night with Johnny snoring right next to him after reading fanfic about them kissing each other.

“I can hear you thinking,” Johnny mutters. His eyes are still closed, not wanting to fully wake up. “What’s up? Did you finally realize you like Mark or something?”

Donghyuck’s silence tells him everything.

“You do know he writes a lot about you,” Johnny sighs. He’s already covering himself in his blanket again and pulls the drawstrings of his hoodie. 

“About me?”

“It’s always been all about you. The only reason Mark has taken up writing in the first place has always been you. You’ve inspired him in so many ways. Everything you do makes Mark want to write — even if you are a gremlin at times I might add. I can’t believe that he wrote a verse about how cute you are when you’re snoring. Disgusting.”

“Hey, I am not disgusting when I’m sleeping. I sleep like an angel.”

“Only you and Mark think so. I would call him your boyfriend, but man you’ve been so oblivious. If Mark’s ever told you to read something he wrote, just do it. And don’t break his heart either. You and I both know he wears his heart on his sleeve so easily. But you’re his best friend. So I know you care too much to ever hurt Mark.”

It’s been two days since Johnny’s told Donghyuck that Mark likes him. And likes Donghyuck _that_ way. Not just as a groupmate but like in a way that makes Mark dick twitch — okay despite Donghyuck reading and consuming a lot of fluffy fanfiction, he’s not a big romantic.

Donghyuck reacts the only way he knows. Avoiding everything that has to do with fanfiction and #markhyuck #맠동. But it’s so fucking hard because:

  1. All of Donghyuck’s bookmarks are full of Markhyuck and Markhyuck only.
  2. Johnny keeps sending him signals to read Mark’s fic (more like texts but Donghyuck doesn’t want to deal with semantics here.)
  3. Mark is probably waiting to see if Donghyuck read his fic. He’s already promised he’d read it but with an empty inbox, Donghyuck probably looked like he dismissed Mark’s hobby as weird and unworthy of being supportive— unlike all the other ones Donghyuck’s supported throughout the years. Even Mark’s Kitchen Mama flop era…



So Donghyuck finally takes the plunge and does the only thing he’s learned after discovering AO3.

Read.

_It’s days like this, where the sky is lightly tinted with pink and the clouds begin dissipating to make way for the midday sun, Mark thinks that Donghyuck is Persephone reincarnated — or at the very least one of her mortal incarnations._

_Donghyuck is an ethereal presence in Mark’s eyes; there is something so magical about Donghyuck’s existence that Mark can’t help but notice how his skin was bathed in gold and his eyes always shimmered copper. Always bright and gleaming with a warmness that threatens autumn and winter away from the earth._

_A golden touch that extends to every living thing that Donghyuck touches._

It has always been him, hasn’t it? 

All of this time, it’s always been Donghyuck for Mark.

“Donghyuck.” Now it’s Marks turn to barge into Donghyuck’s room. 

He’s wearing his oversized grey hoodie again and it almost engulfs his whole body, the one that Mark wears to sleep during winter. Mark's shoes are mismatched and Donghyuck doesn’t even think Mark grabbed the right pair of sweatpants either. Looking at how they bundled up where the seam met the very top of each shoe, Donghyuck thinks the sweatpants might belong to Jungwoo instead.

“What does this mean?” Mark flashes his phone, reeling Donghyuck in from his observation. “What do you mean by this comment?”

“I want to kiss you duh,” Donghyuck says as if it’s the most obvious thing in the universe. “And I’m 100% certain that you want to kiss me too. Maybe 99% if you only wrote about us for some type of internet clout. If so, I take my feelings for you back and fall in love with Jaemin instead.”

Mark blinks before he processes that Donghyuck likes him back. “Wait no. Please don’t choose Jaemin over me. He’s too cheesy—”

Donghyuck pulls Mark by the drawstrings of his hoodie.

“Eww. Of course not. He’s too cheesy for me and more Jisung’s type than mine. But kiss me like all of the Donghyucks you’ve written. I want to see if you kiss just as good as you write.”

** Comments **

↳

| 

**_** **_** **hon3ybear** **_** **:** I think I like you too.

| 

↳

| 

**mark3r:** WTF. You did not just confess to me on my comment section.

| 

↳ **mark3r:** hey reply back!

| 

↳ **mark3r:** donghyuck!!!!!  
  
---  
  
**Author's Note:**

> Please leave comments and kudos if you liked this fic. Honestly added Johnil in the hope I write them someday. When: once I figure out my fic fest schedule.
> 
> Find me here:  
> [twitter](https://twitter.com/_ourloveispink)  
> [cc](https://curiouscat.qa/hoelistic98)


End file.
